This invention relates to telephone monitoring devices and more particularly to a telephone monitoring device which is capable of providing information regarding the date and time a call is initiated as well as other information to enable a user to determine what calls have been made on his subset and to determine what calls have been received on his subset.
The prior art is replete with a number of patents which relate to various types of systems for monitoring telephone subsets in regard to determining the length of a call. The purpose of such prior art systems is to enable a user to gain some indication of what charges will be incurred during a telephone call. It is, of course, known that billing as well as the determination of the length of a call are also a feature incorporated in most modern telephone systems in order to enable the operator of the system such as the telephone company to determine charges in regard to such calls.
As indicated above, there have been many attempts in the prior art to provide systems for use by the consumer to enable the consumer to verify calls made and the length of time of such calls. This aspect is particularly desirable in modern day society due to the fact that there are now many companies who provide access services for the consumer. For example, such companies enable one to reduce costs in regard to long distance calls. This can be done by selecting companies such as MCI, Sprint and other such companies who will provide long distance service over lines which are leased from the telephone company.
These various companies have different charges all of which are based upon the length of a telephone call. In any event, it is very difficult to compute charges due to the vast differences in billing between the various companies. However, it is desirable to provide apparatus which will provide the following capabilities.
1. The apparatus will be able to determine the date and the time a call is initated from a subset.
2. The apparatus will be able to determine the telephone number and the area code called.
3. The apparatus will be able to give an indication of the total minutes and seconds of the call placed.
4. The apparatus will be able to give the user the time the call is disconnected and provide connect and disconnecting documentation in order to provide the user with a hard record of telephone use.
It is also an object of this equipment to give the user an indication of the time and date of all incoming calls. This is important in order to determine telephone activity and to verify in certain instances when the telephone has been accessed.
As indicated, the prior art included many such devices which attempted to monitor telephone calls. For example,
U.S. Pat. No. 3,538,258 entitled TIME MEASURING AND COUNTING APPARATUS which issued on Nov. 3, 1970 to W. Zuckerman. This patent discloses a monitoring device which essentially monitors the usage of a telephone line. The device is relatively crude but serves to monitor usage of a telephone line to give an indication to the consumer of how long a telephone call has been on-line. The purpose of the device is to give one an indication of the billing period for each call made.
Other patents such as U.S. Pat. No. 3,970,793 entitled TELEPHONE CALL TOLL MONITOR AND INDICATOR by L. M. Profitt issued on July 20, 1976. This patent also describes a telephone call monitor and charge indicator. The device is a complicated device but will enable one to time a call and to give an amount in terms of dollars for the call depending upon the length of time the telephone set has been in use.
There are other patents which involve similar apparatus. See for example U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,041,291, 4,091,238, and 4, 275,272. These patents all relate to equipment for calculating and displaying the cost of a telephone call while it is in progress. The patents describe circuitry for developing long distance rates and using these rates as well as the time to calculate the charge for each telephone call. Other patents described above show systems which can be employed in hotels and motels where many telephones are used to give the owner of the premises a printout of the duration of a particular call as well as the identity of the caller.
As one can ascertain from the type of prior art cited above, the systems tend to be relatively complex and many systems are completely unusable due to the existence of independent companies providing long distance services.
Hence it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved apparatus which will give a telephone user a correct indication of the date as well as the time the call was initiated. It will enable the user to determine the telephone number as well as the area code accessed, the total minutes and seconds of the call placed, the time the call is disconnected, and also provide information regarding the time and date of all incoming calls.
It is an object of the present invention to provide simple and inexpensive apparatus which requires little or no interface by the consumer. As will be explained, the apparatus to be described has certain features which enable automatic operation while providing the consumer or user with a printout of information necessary to determine the length, time and date of all telephone calls made via the subset.